Though the likelihood of getting the truth out of him is low and even less if you’re an attractive woman, Duke's life is about as far from what you'd expect as you can get. You'd expect him to have been an orphan running around the trash-clogged streets of some Dominion Mega City. Living by his wits and only worrying about where his next meal is coming from and where can he hunker down for a few hours of sleep before diving back into the dredges of humanity.
But as much as he would love to deny it Duke was born in a small frontier town at the edge of the Dominion's reach, and he was born into a traveling circus. The Dusty Boot Troupe as they called themselves, it was a small family owned and operated organization. They had a Lion(Cougar) Tamer, Clowns, various kinds of Acrobats, and an old Crotchety Knife Thrower, with a young and impressive kid who was on the fast track to replace the old man. In reality this was Duke's Grandfather, Amos Runner. Duke was the youngest cousin and an only child, and with his parents running the circus, the young man found himself under his Grandfather's stern eye more than anything else.
It wasn't an altogether bad life, but boring and frustrating for young man with a Genius IQ. He got into a lot of trouble growing up, fights, fooling with young girls, and cheating the law. It was after one such dalliance that he was taken off the bleachers and into the Ring. Seeing it as a way to get his gifts focused in a positive direction, this led even deeper into Grandpa Amos's wiry strong arms. Woken up on the dawn of his 10th birthday young Duke began his training as a Blade Trickster. Amos was given free reign over how to teach the boy, much to the kid's pain and annoyance. This meant military style Physical Training and the law of the switch. It was rough, but eventually Duke saw the positive side of this he was getting strong and damn good looking, and he was leaning how to kill someone in the most badass ways.
His already booming confidence skyrocketed with the success of his first act even if it was just assisting his Grandfather. Seeing a way to make some easy money and be every level of badass, Duke truly dedicated himself to learning the art of Knives and Swords. Once he set his mind to it, he quickly became the star of the circus. Thinking his evil ways were truly gone, the family went back to happily looking the other way. But while he's never been malicious he had plans that were..less than savory all in the name of being the best.
Using the money he was earning in the circus, he began building his impressive arsenal of tech and using his natural skill at the hacker lifestyle he began tackling whatever system thought it was better than him, breaking in and taking money, hacking private nudy pics and sending them all across the web. The usual stuff snot-nosed 14 year old Geniuses did, no one knew about it and even when his family found random amounts of money dropped into their accounts with no trace of where it came from.
This continued right up until he bit off more than he could chew at 18, with every system on the planet and many of the neighboring planets his bitch he was looking farther for even more challenges. And he found it in a Skorne outpost located on a nearby moon, now the Skorne are the most technologically advanced race in this part of the Universe and many other parts of it as well. No one has been able to hack into their systems, many have tried and some have even come close, but each attempt ended the same way. Their gear got fried and a Skorne hit squad was on its way to the Hacker's Door to arrest and more than likely kill them once they got into Skorne Territory.
Successfully hacking into their shit would make you a fucking legend and you'd have bitches lining up at your door for a fucking chance to get into your bed. That was motivation enough for the young Genius, it took him weeks to even get to the front door of the Skorne Network, but once he got there he knew it was a race against time before the Skorne Tech Ops sniffed him out and took him out. Duke had never felt a thrill like this ever before, sure he's come up against networks he couldn't take down. But never has the thrill of death been this close.
The furthest anyone has gotten was to the second firewall that surrounds the outer limits of the network itself. Duke planned to get past that and rape his way all the way to the heart of the Virgin Skorne Network. Days went by and he slowly chipped away the 7 million veils, his shows went on without him and he could almost taste the last of the cyber defenses falling before he reached the record. Fate was not for young Duke this day though, an inch from breaking the record his system froze and a message scrawled across the screen.
"YOU ARE CAUGHT, IN THE NAME OF THE SKORNE EMPIRE! YOU ARE UNDER ARREST!" Letting them fry his gear was hard, but it had to be done. Besides he covered his tracks well enough that they'd only come after him and leave his family alone. Grabbing what money and stuff he could and his favorite knife (the Mercury Energy Knife he'd saved up for) he jumped the next vessel off his home planet not even bothering to tell his family goodbye. He began the life he'd always liked to brag about, a refugee living by his wits and skill. From 18 to 25 he lived like this, banging bitches when he could, rebuilding his gear, and dodging Skorne hit-squads. It during this time he came across Aster and her little putt-putt ship, it wasn't ideal but she was cute and he needed a quick way out of the Skorne's crosshairs. He sweet-talked his way aboard and took a job as the woman's Navigator and back up. Now a year later they live like outlaws and fight like a married couple.
